Warning: Check Your AppleCare Support Profile!

UPDATE: February 2, 2012 — 24 hours have come and gone since Apple gave me 24 hours to remove this entire article from publication.

Apple Supervisor James finally called me back this morning to confirm the Takedown Notice was real — bad grammar and all — and that it came from Apple. He asked me if Apple did anything to me for not taking down the article and I told him, “No.” So far, all my Apple IDs and developer access and iTunes Match and such were still active.

Then James then told me I could risk doing nothing with this article and see what happens next, or I could just remove the quoted responses from AppleCare support in this article and that should be enough.

When I told him removing the quotes would not put me in compliance with the Takedown Notice because Apple demanded the removal of the entire article, James said I could wait and see if the Apple legal department contacted me again or not and then decide what to do.

He said Apple “didn’t want me to feel more threatened than you already are.”

I asked him to send me an email confirming that removing the quoted email would legally satisfy Apple’s Takedown Notice, and he said he’d check on that and get back to me.

In the meantime, and in the spirit of Apple Fellowship — and, more importantly, of not wanting to deal with this all day every day any longer — I have removed the Apple email responses from this article. If you want to read the full text of the Takedown Notice — you can still read it on Tech Crunch — at least until Apple forces them to take it down.

SOPA and PIPA certainly stung — but there’s nothing quite like having Apple directly slap you in the face.

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EDITORIAL NOTE: February 1, 2012 — Be certain to read the update to this article — Apple Threatens Go Inside Magazine with Article Takedown Notice — for the latest on this silly saga!  Email headers included!   AppleCare responses in the comments included!  Read on, MacDuff!

On January 14, 2012, my Apple Thunderbolt display died.  Apple did the right thing and gave me a new display, but now, 12 days later — 12 “24 hours” later — Apple cannot get the AppleCare warranty transferred from the dead display to the new one:

Matthew also warned me to get in touch with AppleCare to make sure my service plan gets transferred to the new serial number of my replacement Thunderbolt display.  He made a note on my account explaining everything that happened.

When I first called AppleCare to get the warranty transfer to happen, the Apple tech could not find the serial number for the new Thunderbolt Display in the system.  After repeating the serial number at least five times it finally “came up” in the Apple database.

The tech told me the AppleCare transfer would happen “in 24 hours” and that I should check supportprofile.apple.com to confirm the transfer was in place the next day.

Day after day, I kept checking my support profile and the warranty was not transferred as you can see in the screenshot below:

On January 19, 2012, I decided to write the to email address the AppleCare tech gave me to use in case there were any problems:

Hi there —

According to my online Apple Support Profile, my AppleCare did not transfer from my defective Thunderbolt display to my new Thunderbolt display — Serial number: [redacted] — as promised.

Can you please tell me when that will actually happen?

Thank you.

db

I received this reply from Apple later in the day:

[RESPONSE REMOVED BY APPLE REQUEST.]

Day after day again, I kept checking my support profile.  No transfer.  I paid extra for that AppleCare warranty and I wanted to make sure my new display was covered.

I waited a few days and replied to Apple:

Okay, it’s been six days since you told me the AppleCare coverage would be transferred and it has not.

What is the problem and what will you do to fix this?

Yesterday, Apple replied:

[RESPONSE REMOVED BY APPLE REQUEST.]

It’s funny how Apple always asks you to wait a day when something needs to happen.  In the past, with AppleCare issues, updates to my support profile had gone live within minutes — so this continual waiting period of ever-advancing “24 hour” periods has been tiring.

When I checked my support profile this morning, the AppleCare coverage had not yet transferred, but I did notice two items were no longer in my account. My brand new MacBook Air was missing — as well as my 13-inch MacBook — and they both have extended AppleCare warranties. Four days ago they were both also in my support profile.

I re-added those two computers and they immediately reappeared in my Apple support profile — including the unique names I had previously given them — so this “systems failure” Apple experienced was quite nefarious and not just limited to AppleCare transfers.  I don’t know if those computers would have reappeared in my profile or not if I had not re-added them on my own.

I urge you to login to your Apple support profile and make sure all your devices are still listed and that the proper AppleCare warranties are visible and in place if you’ve purchased that additional warranty coverage.  I’ll let you know if and when the AppleCare transfer to my replacement Thunderbolt display actually happens.